Did Wisconsin’s Voter ID Laws Suppress 200,000 Votes?

Trump won Wisconsin, one of three states that swung the election, by a mere 22,748 votes.

After the Republican-led statehouse in Wisconsin changed its voter registration law mandating stricter identification, more than 200,000 mostly African-Americans were not able to vote in the 2016 presidential election, according to a recently released study.

Priorities USA, a progressive voting rights organization, shared its results exclusively with The Nation, and shows that Wisconsin’s voter-ID law reduced turnout by 200,000 votes. Donald Trump won the state by only 22,748 votes.

Three states—Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania—gave Trump the electoral college advantage that won him the presidency.

The data in the study compared turnout in states that adopted strict voter-ID laws between 2012 and 2016, like Wisconsin, to states that did not. Tellingly, some of the states where there it was easier to vote (“non-strict” Alabama, New Hampshire, Rhode Island), voter turnout was slightly up. Conversely, in states like Virginia, Mississippi and Wisconsin, voter turnout, especially for African-Americans, was down, most significantly in Wisconsin.

The study also compared turnout in Wisconsin to Minnesota, which has very similar demographics but no voter-ID law, and found “turnout in African-American counties dropped off at significantly higher levels than in their Minnesota-counterparts.

The Nation found that such ID laws have a significant impact on our democracy, writing:

This study provides more evidence for the claim that voter-ID laws are designed not to stop voter impersonation fraud, which is virtually nonexistent, but to make it harder for certain communities to vote. This matters greatly today, because 87 bills to restrict access to the ballot have been introduced in 29 states this year, including voter-ID laws in 19 states. Arkansas and Iowa have already passed strict voter-ID laws in 2017.

I don’t understand. Why are people so hell bent on being allowed to vote without ID? These same people would walk on hot coals to get a driver’s licence to be able to drive, but want folks to believe that getting ID – even a state ID card is too much of a hardship? Help me out somebody.

Dang, I agree with MBen, I don’t understand why we don’t have IDs, in some districts, cities, and state, you can get free IDs in certain circumstances. Regardless, we shouldn’t let that stop us from voting, although it’s crystal clear your vote in the presidential elections (since they are decided by the electoral votes) clearly doesn’t matter, but voting in the primaries and mid-years are crucial.
The only other thing to add however, why is it that you can use a gun license as ID but not a student ID? What’s that about? And why is that in American? Seems like we lift up gun “tote-ers” and just the opposite for students, doesn’t that seem backwards? Only further proves who is running the country.

What legitimate adult has no ID? You need ID to drive a car, rent a car, board a plane, buy alcohol and cigarrettes, pick up prescriptions, use credit cards, cash checks… Black people need to stop bullsh!ttiing…Voter ID laws apply to eveybody but we are the only mufkers who whine and complain. Asians vote, Mexicans vote but we…We let some funky ID requirement stop us??

Voter suppression began on Inauguration Day of 2009 when Barack H. Obama was sworn in as the first African American President!!!!!!!

All of a sudden folks needed State ID, and other forms of ID in order to cast their vote.

Look for the suppression to increase with that POS AG Sessions in charge.
Sessions will totally erode all of the Civil Rights Act of 1965 and make it more
difficult for people of color to vote in the future.